Spain Wins Its First Women's World Cup with Victory over England

Spain is the new FIFA Women's World Cup champion with a 1-0 victory over England in the final match of the tournament held in Sydney.

La Roja, as the Spanish side is known, secured its victory with a goal scored in minute 29 of play by its captain, Olga Carmona.

Playing before a crowd of 76,000 fans at Australia Stadium, Spain and England held a tense game, described by FIFA's website as "high-energy, high quality and end-to-end from the very first whistle."

This is the second back-to-back defeat for England in the World Cup's finals under coach Sarina Wiegman's tenure. Wiegman could not continue the successful path team England had this year as Europe's champion.

Instead, La Roja just became the fifth team to lift the trophy as World Champions since the first FIFA Women's World Cup. No team has ever won more than one cup, the other champions being United States, Germany, Norway and Japan.

Spain's coach, Jorge Vidal, told a press conference that his team's victory "ushers in a definitive boom of women's soccer in the country."

He said that Spain won the World Cup because the team was "the best squad of all."

According to Vidal, the game plan against England was to be prepared against the two systems they usually use.

"We knew they were going to match us in the middle, but defensively we had to be very attentive, especially on long balls. The team showed that they knew how to suffer, although they didn't create any great chances. The players showed great mental strength," Vidal said.

In turn, English players lauded Spain and said the Spaniards deserved to win the game and become World Champions.

"Spain were excellent," Millie Bright said in an interview with FIFA. "They played a really, really top game. They were definitely the better team in the first half and we were just a couple of yards off. We just couldn't get our press right. We had our chances, hit the bar, but we just couldn't find that final cutting edge."